BenA

Trust me, as a frequent buyer of wine abroad: you do NOT want to import wine into or through BC. They levy an 85% tax on the full retail value you paid for the wine - and that is not a typo. The CBSA officer practically agreed with me that it was absurd and suggested I fly via a different province next time. Left me shaking my head and swearing to not book any trips to places that produce tasty wine from YVR anymore...

Fortunately, the wine we had in excess was only valued at 15€, so it wasn't a costly mistake. But if you have a case of something nice... you really want it to come in via the States.

I'm glad they cooked up the solution of rerouting it via AMS - absurdly unfair of the Canadians to require that of a package that's just in transit, but at least there was an out that wasn't "rebuy your wine all over again".

My feelings about protectionist policies like this and their likelihood of encouraging me as a visitor to sample and enjoy more BC wine is a topic best reserved for OMNI.

On the other hand, US customs has always been pleasant as long as we declare it, and in my experience the duty has so far always been waived as long as the quantity isn't excessive/enough for resale. This has been true at both the BC border and at multiple US airports (most recently, today at SFO).

BenA

I always declare my wine to CBP, but have never had to pay. In my experience, as I said in another post, the US customs officials thank you for your honesty and wave you through if you have a small excess quantity.

My understanding is that they have discretion to waive duty of up to $20 if they feel it is appropriate, and that frequently happens in this situation.

I don't know how this works for unaccompanied luggage such as in a delayed situation; that may trigger the actual duty to be payable without the opportunity to receive a waiver, but unlike BC it should at least be a fair amount.

arollins

I'm a licensed US Customs broker that work with a German freight forwarder here in the US. The $20 is true, Customs has a minimus rule of $20, the time, effort and paperwork is not worth it.

As for the unaccompanied luggage issue, maybe Canada has some sort of policy that may prohibit the transfer of such item, hence changing the definition from unaccompanied luggage to cargo rendering dutiable.

Who knows. Good luck, let us know the final outcome as you still need to wait for the luggage to go back to AMS and booked to SEA. Hopefully this was properly packaged for the handling it will undergo. This type of situations are the ones that typically require manual intervention in order to get resolved.

Pharaoh

This is, of course, quite true. And it should also be noted that there are additional laws in the US (such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative) which exempt as much as 2 liters additional, per person.

So, traveling (with alcohol produced in a covered country) with my wife and bring back a case of 750ml bottles, there is a total of 8 exempt bottles ... and the inspectors don't even bother calculating duty on the 4 remaining.

wrp96

A few years ago an acquaintance flew to Rome on Delta to take a two week cruise. Her baggage never arrived while in Europe and finally was delivered to her at her home two weeks after she returned from the trip. When she got them back, the bags had tags showing all the places her bags had been shipped before finally getting reunited with her - apparently her bags flew to Australia and all over Asia without her. She wrote into Delta requesting all the miles her bags flew - and Delta gave them to her.

brianguy

YYZ customs were nice? wow, shocked based on the fact you're American (assuming you have a US passport). your mileage definitely did vary compared to my trips.

west coast CBSA are much nicer in general.